vinde

Forms

vinde (third-person singular present vinde, past participle vândut, third-person subjunctive vândă) 3rd conjugation^[1] Old texts have vende; the first person present is vând, in older and regional speech vânz and regionally vind.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin vendō (“to sell”).^{[3][2][1][4][5]} The Latin verb is a compound of vēnum (“sale”) and dō (“to give”), literally “to give for sale”.^[1]

The verb survives in all four branches of Romanian: Aromanian vindu, Megleno-Romanian vind and Istro-Romanian vindu.^[3][6][7] Its Romance cognates include Italian vendere, French vendre, Occitan vendre, Catalan vendre, Spanish vender and Portuguese vender.^[3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2's first record is the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century.^[2] Tiktin cites the Psaltirea Scheiană (Psalm 43:14), where Coresi's psalter of 1570 has the past vînduși “you sold”.^[8][9] A deed of 1591 records that a man sold his rightful land in the village of Filipești, „au vândut a lui direaptă ocină și moșie”.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The core sense, “to give up something for money”, extended to “to offer goods for sale, to trade” and, passively, “to find buyers”.^[10][2] Figuratively it means “to betray or denounce for gain” and “to compromise oneself for advantage”.^[10][8]

Idioms include a vinde pielea ursului din pădure “to sell the bear's skin while the bear is still in the forest” and cum am cumpărat-o, așa o vând “I tell it as I heard it”.^[10] The nouns vânzare “sale; betrayal” and vânzător “seller” were formed in Romanian.^[3]

Timeline

• early 16th century – in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, MDA2's first record.^[2]
• 1570 – vînduși and vîndut in Coresi's psalter.^[9]
• c. 1573–1578 – in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[8]
• 1591 – au vândut in a deed of sale.^[8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To sell: to give up the ownership of something in exchange for money; to offer for sale, to trade;^[10][2][1] (passive) to find buyers.^[10][2][1]
2. To sell at auction for unpaid debts.^[10]
3. (figurative) To compromise oneself for material advantage; to prostitute oneself.^[10]
4. To betray or denounce someone for money or gain.^[10][8]

Word family

• vânzare
• vânzător

Related words

• Aromanian vindu
• Latin vendō

Usage notes

Cu cât se vinde? asks the price of something.^[10] A-și vinde scump pielea means to fight to the end before being taken or killed.^[10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1481
3. ^ a b c d Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. vinde
4. ^ Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. vinde
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 9190
6. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1110
7. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 327
8. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. vinde
9. ^ a b Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 43:14
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1199